Many Atheists continue to talk about theism for decades after they've stopped buying into the spooks. My position ,that it's better develop a theism-meme free world is often incomprehensible to some.…Continue

Comment Wall

You need to be a member of Memetics and Cultural Evolution to add comments!

I certainly agree with your dislike of Orwellian terms like “isolated detention centers” for “concentration camps” with crematoria. Orwell was a great writer and knew a lot about mind control. That’s what it’s all about: brainwashing. And we still see a lot of it, like going to war for peace in our time.

Also misspelling words in ads like “kwik” or “majic” drives me crazy. It’s an example of greedy, selfish, ignorant people flaunting their control and power over the media and society.

Here’s a fun video by Bill Hicks on the subject. If you’re not familiar with him, you’re in for a treat. I followed his whole career and his early demise was a great loss. Dig his video on evolution right under it.

Regarding the earlier statements about not liking re-spellings and neologisms - I have the opposite point of view.

I'm sure that language is also considered a collection of memes and is a meme itself. Language evolves, adapts to its environment, and transforms its environment.

I like the fun expressions, like "Bennifer". It's a short-hand, a commentary on the concept of a couple being joined in the cultural mindset, and a bit of a satire on the silliness of celebrity itself. The concept of combining names is a new meme, at least to me.

Meaning this only in a friendly way, how is it different from "Gaytheist"?

Evolution of language and language-related memes might be a fun topic for a discussion.

Leaders in a number of countries have attempted to purify their languages, with a variety of results. This was done in Turkey, resulting in huge leaps in literacy and essentially cultural loss of the earlier literature from the language. German and French have had attempts at re-purification or maintaining purity.

English is a combination of languages, starting with Germanic dialects, with infusions of Scandinavian, Norman/latin origins, neologistic constructions from Latin and Greek, and borrowing of scattered words from around the globe. The language has almost equal parts French/Norman, Germanic, and Latin origins (Roman conquest of Britain), plus elements from other languages.

Being a hybrid language gives English its vitality. It also makes it fun to play with.

That being said, what I do hate is Orwellian use of language to obscure and spin, making offensive concepts seem acceptable (like transforming "torture" into "persuasive interviewing" or whatever), and other manipulation. When language is used for hiding rather than revealing, then it is a problem for me.

I'm envisioning the early scene in "2001 - A Space Odyssey" with the homonids and the rectangular monolith. Now I understand - this was transmission of the first meme (in this case, use of tools). The monolith was a memolith.

I can't get the embed function to work this morning, but here is the link: